March 19, 2012 San Francisco City Hall
Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Veterans For Peace (VFP), American Legion Bob Basker Post 315, and their allies layed out “Eyes Wide Open,” the American Friends Service Committee’s widely acclaimed exhibit on the human costs of war, for the last time Monday, March 19, 2012 on the plaza in front of San Francisco City Hall from 9am to 5pm.
The event will be an observance of the ninth year since the US invasion of Iraq. The exhibit includes combat boots representing the 481 Californians who died in the Iraq war, along with civilian shoes to represent the thousands upon thousands of Iraqi civilians that lost their lives. The exhibit will be up for one day only and will be permanently retired Monday evening.
“It is our duty to make sure that the larger public both remembers the costs already incurred and is aware of struggles that continue,” said Dottie Guy, a member of IVAW. “Hundreds of thousands of service members and veterans will be coming home carrying deep moral, mental and physical injuries incurred in the war. How are they going to heal? Right now a service member is committing suicide every 36 hours. The war is not over for us; it is just inside us now.”
Read more… Photos: Judith Sandoval
Veterans Speakers Alliance: Veterans For Peace 